Florida
Florida Tech Panthers Hires Melissa Wieand as Associate Athletic Trainer – Space Coast Daily
spent time with Green Bay packers, LA Chargers
Wieand comes to Florida Tech after working for the Green Bay Packers as a Fellow Athletic Trainer since 2023.
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Florida Tech Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine and Performance Luis Velez has announced the hiring of Melissa Wieand as Associate Athletic Trainer.
“I am excited for Melissa to be joining our team and for her to come back to the Space Coast where she grew up.” Said Velez. “Her professional background as an athletic trainer will bring another perspective that will further round out our sports medicine staff.”
Wieand comes to Florida Tech after working for the Green Bay Packers as a Fellow Athletic Trainer since 2023.
“I am very excited about this opportunity at Florida Tech and being back in my hometown community,” said Wieand. “I’m looking forward to working with the talented sports medicine staff and scholar-athletes at Florida Tech in this next journey of my career.”
While working with the Packers, she developed rehabilitation plans that coincided with the team’s weight room program and managed pregame locker room setup during away games. Additionally, she conducted comprehensive weekly inspections on all emergency equipment to ensure functionality and reliability.
Before working in Green Bay, Wieand spent the 2022-2023 season at Florida Atlantic University as an Athletic Training Fellow, where she was with the Owls Football and Track programs.
There, she was the primary source of communication between athletes and physicians, working with hospital schedulers to order imaging and coordinating insurance while supervising student interns.
Earlier that year, she also gained experience working as a training camp intern for the Los Angeles Chargers. She assisted with sweat and hydration testing, maintained inventory, and coordinated pregame equipment for the team’s travel.
In 2021-2022, Wieand attended the University of Connecticut (UCONN) as a graduate student, working with the Recreational Sports teams. Her duties included performing on-field evaluations of injuries while also working with physicians regarding concussion management protocols.
Throughout graduate school, Wieand worked at the Korey Stringer Institute as an Assistant Director of Sports Safety, Westminster School, University of Florida Football Camps, and Valdosta High School.
As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, she worked with the Gators women’s basketball, swim and dive team, and football programs. Other experiences while in school include working with the Philadelphia Flyers during rookie training camp, at Eastside High School, and held a Patrick South End Zone Internship at the University of Florida.
She holds certifications in Basic Life Support (CPR) through the American Heart Association.
Wieand received her Bachelor of Science in athletic training from the University of Florida in May 2020. In 2022, she earned her Master of Science in Kinesiology from UCONN.
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The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, Dec. 11, filed a lawsuit against popular online gaming platform Roblox, accusing the company of failing to protect its millions of underage users from predatory adults who would “find, groom, and abuse children.”
“Roblox aggressively markets to young children, but fails to protect them from sexual predators,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post to X. “As a father of three little ones and as Florida’s attorney general, my number one priority is simple: to protect our kids.”
The lawsuit claims Florida children have been talked into taking and sending sexual images of themselves and lists several recent incidences, including a 20-year-old California man arrested last month for having sexually explicit conversations with a Palm Coast child and asking for nude photos.
A Roblox spokesperson said the lawsuit “fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works.”
“We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications,” Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement, adding that the company — currently the most downloaded game in the world — will be rolling out additional safeguards “beyond what is required by law and what other platforms do.”
Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox
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What is Roblox?
San Mateo, California-based Roblox, released in 2006, hosts millions of user-created games (or “experiences”) constructed with the platform’s built-in game engine. Any user can create a game and share it with others, and there are millions of games available of all types.
The game platform and most games are free to use, but some cost to play. There is also a thriving economy based on Robux, an in-game virtual currency used to purchase virtual items. Roblox offers a subscription service called Roblox Premium that provides access to more features and a monthly allowance of Roblox.
Voice chat is available, but only for users aged 13 or older with verified ages. Age ratings were introduced for games in 2022, and in 2023, 17+ games were permitted to include more graphic violence, romance, and drinking.
According to Roblox, as of 2020, the monthly playerbase included half of all American children under the age of 16.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The 2026 football schedule for the Florida Gators has been set. Next year’s slate was unveiled Thursday night on SEC Network.
The most notable dates are Florida’s SEC opener on Sept. 19 — a Week 3 trip to Auburn, where the Gators haven’t played since 2011 — along with a road game at Texas on Oct. 17 and home games against Ole Miss (Sept. 26) and Oklahoma (Nov. 7).
Next season will mark the Sooners’ first-ever visit to Gainesville. The teams have previously played twice in the postseason, with the Gators defeating Oklahoma 24-14 in their first-ever meeting to win the 2008 national championship.
The Gators open the season in The Swamp on Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic. UF’s other non-conference opponents will be Campbell (Sept. 12) and at Florida State (Nov. 28).
Florida is also hosting South Carolina (Oct. 10) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 21). The Gators haven’t played the Gamecocks or the Commodores since 2023.
UF takes on Georgia in Atlanta on Oct. 31 after the bye week. Florida’s other road games are Missouri (Oct. 3), Texas (Oct. 17) and Kentucky (Nov. 14).
The Gators will be led by first-year coach Jon Sumrall. He won the American Conference title with Tulane last week and has the Green Wave in the College Football Playoffs. They will have a rematch against Ole Miss on Dec. 20 in the first round after losing in Oxford, 45-10, on Sept. 20.
Sumrall was back in Gainesville this week to assemble his staff. So far, he has hired offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, defensive coordinator Brade White and defensive line coach Gerald Chatman.
Date
Opponent
Location
Sept. 5
Florida Atlantic
Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 12
Campbell
Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 19
at Auburn
Auburn, Alabama
Sept. 26
Ole Miss
Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 3
at Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Oct. 10
South Carolina
Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 17
at Texas
Austin, Texas
Oct. 24
Bye
Oct. 31
Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Nov. 7
Oklahoma
Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 14
at Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Nov. 21
Vanderbilt
Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 28
at Florida State
Tallahassee, Florida
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